Nate Talks About The Benefits Of Sobriety

In this episode, Nate talks about the health benefits of sobriety and the trends showing more people are giving up alcohol.

Transcript

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Hey folks, it's Nate with the Dry Life. Hope you're doing well. Hope you're having a good weekend. Yeah. So today I wanted to talk a little bit about um what happens to your body when you quit alcohol. Um and um before I start that, I just uh I stumbled upon some statistics which I found very interesting. Of course, you probably know by now that I love looking at statistics, but um uh now this is uh according to a poll from last year, um it says 54% of people say they drank alcohol here in the US. Um, so that was 2025. Now if you could go back to 2022, it was 67%, 2023, 62, 2024, 58%, and then again, um last year 54%. So we've seen a 13% drop in uh alcohol use in the past three years. So I just found that interesting, and uh I'll be really curious when 2026 numbers come out from the Gallup poll. Um it might be 50-50, you know, um, based on this trend. Um 50 drink, 50% drink, 50% don't drink. So and if you're curious, um, and this makes sense because you know, I'm a child of the 70s growing up and um had relatives that uh always seemed to be having fun. Um between 1976 and 1978, um 71% of people reported uh using alcohol, and that was the highest, the highest since um they started tracking this back in the when was it since 1939. Anyway, I just thought that was interesting. Anyway, uh back to our what happens um to your body when you quit. Um I looked at uh read this article in in health.com and thought, you know, um, it's kind of interesting to see um what this is all about. And number one, uh the the number one thing they talk about was better sleep. Um and that, you know, um that makes a big difference in everything. Um good night's sleep um improves pretty much everything. And you know, if you if you got a couple days without getting good sleep and then you finally get that night of sleep, it's just so nice, so nice to get back on track. And and now, you know, I I know sometimes you you folks get restless and can't really sleep very well, and but there's um there's so many things out there to help you sleep, and I know I suffer from um sleep apnea, had the uh good lord, the um the machine, um forgetting the name of it, but it was awful at a mask, and um you know it was it was very cumbersome nowadays. Um Megan and I just uh we bought this special tape that goes across your mouth, keeps your mouth shut, forces you to breathe through and out super simple idea, and it makes a world difference. So um yeah, better sleep is is a big one, and uh alcohol can just there's just a lot of different ways that it can interrupt um your sleep pattern. Um another one is improved mood. So I mean that goes hand in hand with sleep. You um you know you get better sleep, you're a better mood. Um uh and one thing I want to mention with the sleep is that you uh it delays or even prevents REM sleep. So that going back to you know, you you have um you have a couple nights not great sleep, then you finally get that good night's sleep, and and you get back on track, and that's you you catch on up or you're really um um getting uh the amount of REM sleep that you need. Um and then the mood thing, um, you know, I think some people drink to relax, um, but of course it's a depressant, and um, you know, it's it's it's pretty simple in my mind. Um take a depressant and it counteracts your antidepressants if you take notes. Um and you know, uh when you're it's just uh you just handle you you can't handle stress as well as you would um if you're sober. You just your your body, your brain um just can can handle those challenges a a little bit better. Uh low risk cancer is another um point they mention in this article. Um you know, even even moderation uh can increase uh many types of cancer, including esophagus, liver, breast cancer, colon cancer, rectal cancer. Um you know, and in and part of it is that your body converts ethanol into something else, and that something else is a carcinogen. So it's um it just it it uh it really impacts whether or not you get cancer over time. It does not help prevent you from getting cancer. Um and then there's uh in enhanced cardiovascular health. Um, I think we've heard this before that alcohol is linked to a number of heart pro uh problems, including stroke and heart attack. Um and you know, alcohol causes inflammation in a lot of ways, and so it's it's um it has a direct impact on your cardio health, um, and it reduces metabolism in in some cases, and so um, you know, you you could be seeking those high calorie foods, and um it's just putting additional stress on your um on your body. Um, you know, some people say the benefit, one of the benefits of stopping drinking is losing weight. But um I think you gotta be careful too that if you if you give up drinking um you may in the end term find another bad habit, one that you may think is a lesser evil, but um, so I guess that's a caveat is that yeah, you can lose weight, but you may supplement that temporarily, may supplement the alcohol, um with uh with something else that you um maybe have an addiction to or whatnot. But anyway, that that was all I really had. You know, and and I guess you know, here's the upside um to quitting, and and I know that um you know a lot of people who are drinking yet um as a as a social mechanism um fear that that will, you know, you're gonna be feeling lonely or isolated. And you know, Megan and I had each other, um, but at the same time things changed. But I would say um overall they changed for the positive. Um, you know, and then going back to these studies, not that you need to be with the in-crowd or need the other need the approval of others, but based on the trends, um folks are um more folks are giving up drinking. And uh, like I said, it'll be interesting to see what the Gallup poll sends um for this year. Well, that's all I got. Um a lot of stats, but I hope this uh conversation was good just to I don't know, reinforce the um the positives of of going sober and um and kind of why why those reasons are um a good reason um to give it up. So hope you have a good uh rest of your week and um we'll talk to you soon.